Mathew Kowald got upset at his young son when he refused to wear a Green Bay Packers jersey - so Kowald tied him up and taped a jersey on him!

Sheriff's Lt. Wayne Smith said Mathew Kowald was cited for disorderly conduct for the incident involving his 7-year-old son at their home in Pardeeville this past weekend. Kowald was accused of restraining the boy for an hour with tape and also taping a jersey onto him during that time.

The father was arrested on Monday after his wife called authorities. Kowald was taken to the county jail and held until Wednesday, when he pleaded no contest, paid a fine of $186 and was released.

(Seems like there was a bit of a domestic issue going on there as well - did the wife report him just so he could get in trouble?) http://www.channel3000.com/news/15063175/detail.html# - via Deadspin

There is no excuse for tying up a child. And you cannot assume the kid was laughing right along with it, nick. But alex has a point, that being that when two people are fighting, they look for the smallest things to cause trouble for each other.BUT even if this is the first incident (or first reported), this type of behavior can and will escalate.

It still strikes me as an inappropriate editorial statement - it really does.I will say upfront that having been an in house volunteer at a women's shelter for 3 1/2 years colours my view. I know that.

Wow. I know it was dismissed, but that seems like such a trumped up charge. You could get the same for grounding a kid to his room and locking the door with that logic.

Of course, no one here knows all the details, but for skepticism's sake, is not possible the wife is vindictively trying to set up a case against the husband for use in divorce court? She could be playing on the common sympathies today that lead people to automatically suspect a man of wrong-doing, particularly in the arena of child abuse.

Wow, that was bad! Sorry for the mangled wordings, guys. This and most of my other posts were written in the middle of a sleep deprived night. (I'm on night duty with the new baby) Not that I'm all that proficient in English to begin with. It's fixed now (hopefully).

Child abuse is a serious matter. I get that. And I also get that abuse doesn't have to be the physical kind to cause harm to a child.

BUT, if you read the article, you'll see that there were also "other domestic issues." This is a red flag for me that there may be more to this story.

One of the easiest way to get your spouse in trouble, in the heat of a domestic altercation, is to call the cops on him or her. One of my neighbors did this to each other when they were fighting. Over stupid stuff - and the cops knew it, but they had to respond.

Later on, both used these incidents as weapons against each other in the divorce and the child custody proceeding.

I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case here too. Note: "Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey said there wasn't enough evidence against the father to support felony charges. She said there is no physical injury to the child and that there is no evidence to warrant further evaluation of any emotional damage."